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Monthly Archives: November 2014

As is pretty normal for me now, realisations about things come to me when I’m doing something with B. Yesterday, we were watching ‘In The Night Garden’ before B went to bed. It’s his favourite programme, and his only one really, which is probably why he gets so excited about it! After his bath, he sings the first three notes of the theme tune! It’s really cute.

I was sitting next to Benedict, head down and busy on my phone, catching up with emails and messages from the day. When B started to make some excited noises I looked up and he was looking at me, grinning and pointing eagerly at Makka Pakka (one of the characters). His face expressed everything, he wanted to share with me the real joy he was feeling; it wasn’t enough for him to enjoy it on his own.

This made me think back to the confirmation session we had in our parish earlier in the week about the Trinity (more in an upcoming post); we talked about how God is three Persons and yet one Being, and that the love they share with one another is so great that it overflows for us to receive it – God wants us to share in his joy. And because God has made us in his image, we have that same desire – it’s not enough for us to live and enjoy our lives on our own.

I know it probably seems like a simple thought, but I think through Benedict’s innocence and purity, it just struck home how much its in our nature to live in a relationship with other people.

How humbling – Benedict, seemingly dependent and helpless at 16 months, has shown me so clearly our likeness to the Trinity!

Its been a long time since I’ve written anything! There aren’t too many changes in our daily life, but it seems like Benedict continues to grow even faster each day.

As for B’s latest craze, it’s books… It’s always story-time these days! I should be over the moon about this, and I am really. But sometimes it can get just a bit too much! After reading the same book so many times you don’t need the book any more to read it, it’s quite difficult to keep up the enthusiasm!

A few days ago, when Benedict was following me around with his book in his hand and making the noise which means “read to me, read to me!” an image randomly came into my head – it was the sign that Fr Alexander had up in his sacristy at St Patrick’s:

Celebrate this Mass as if it is your first Mass, your last Mass, your only Mass

I think it was Mother Teresa who originally said it. And it really struck me – I know reading a book isn’t the same as celebrating the Mass, but I thought, actually yes – I need to read this book as if it was Benedict’s first book, last book, and only book that I read to him. I know Mother Teresa spoke often about doing small things with great love, and motherhood is slowly showing me the reality of this.

So whether I’m reading to B, preparing his meal, dressing him, bathing him, picking him up, or changing his nappy, I need to stop my groaning thoughts, and see these tasks for what they really are, an opportunity to love.